This article was originally written in 2022 by Teun Schutte. This article has since been updated in January 2024.
For many businesses, customer engagement is one of the most important elements of success. The pharmaceutical industry is no different. Engaging with patients directly allows pharmaceutical firms to gain trust and demonstrate that they truly care about patient well-being.
In recent years, apps have increased in importance in the pharmaceutical world. Apps can help pharma engage with patients, offer additional services, and improve the overall patient experience and outcomes.
Discover must have app features that support patient engagement
It's not uncommon to wonder why a pharmaceutical company would need an app in the first place. In short, apps are dominating nearly every aspect of our lives these days, so it only makes sense that pharma companies adopt the technologies their end users are most comfortable with. Audiences use apps because they make life easier, and when health care is more accessible, everyone benefits.
We know pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations can benefit from having their own apps. But what are these apps actually used for?
When it comes to sales, knowledge is power. Equip your sales force with a pharma app that consolidates drug information, clinical study data, and competitive analysis. This gives them the edge they need to communicate effectively with healthcare providers and address any queries on the spot.
Pharma app development services focus on integrating comprehensive product details to empower sales representatives, making them more efficient and effective in their roles.
In a field where information evolves rapidly, having the latest data at one's fingertips is crucial. Apps serve as a dynamic repository of medical knowledge, doing away with the limitations of traditional printed materials.
These digital platforms can be updated in real-time, ensuring that medical professionals have the most current information available, whether in a clinic, hospital or on the go. This feature not only supports healthcare providers in making informed decisions but also bolsters the credibility of pharmaceutical representatives when engaging with medical staff.
Training new employees always has its obstacles, but it is a crucial part of bringing workers into the ever-changing world of pharma and healthcare. Apps can help to make training more accessible, more thorough, and more enjoyable for new recruits.
By training with an app, employees can review their materials anytime, anywhere, putting them in control of their own journey. On top of that, it creates a lot less hassle for employers by keeping all training information in one convenient place.
We've demonstrated how apps can be beneficial to pharmaceutical companies and employees, but what about patients?
For patients, pharmaceutical apps can play a pivotal role in managing their health outcomes. Features like medication reminders, dosage trackers, and side-effect journals empower patients to take an active role in their treatment.
Furthermore, these online pharmacy apps can simplify the prescription refill process with direct ordering systems, which not only enhances patient adherence to medication regimens but also provides pharmaceutical companies with valuable insights into usage patterns and patient experiences with their products.
Learn about Mobiquity's work developing the first digital medicine and app with Otsuka.
Apps can be used for various reasons in the life science industry, benefiting both the patient and the business. With more information about medications and potential treatment methods right at their fingertips, patients can avoid hours of research to obtain this information manually.
In the same vein, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers can benefit from a streamlined resource that keeps everything from medication information to customer feedback right in one place.
When developing a pharmaceutical app, it's especially important to have a very clear idea of the primary user. One way of doing this is through journey mapping.
For example, if the app is designed for patients, consider their journey from symptom to diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing condition management. What are the concerns, needs, and challenges they encounter at each point? How can your solution address these opportunities and points of friction? How might this journey be different for a healthcare provider?
However, pharmaceutical companies can also produce apps to be used internally, such as the sales and medical reference examples mentioned previously. Additionally, apps designed for direct interactions, like telehealth, can be used equally by patients and providers.
There are many ways that you can get closer to your end user. You likely already have research, trial data, call center logs, customer service feedback, and information from sales reps. If these sources don't provide all of the information you need, a focus group, in-depth interview, or survey may be able to fill in the blanks.
The task of mapping out the journey and uncovering blind spots in end-user experience can often benefit from the help of an outside expert in customer experience strategy. An expert in this area can help you consider how both the user and app creator can benefit. A well-designed app can be a helpful tool to the end user and also provide metrics that help the creator better understand and improve the end-user experience.
Developing an online pharmaceutical app requires a strategy that's both meticulous and flexible. In the pharma world, where regulations are tight and user needs are specific, it's critical to design compliant apps to enhance patient outcomes.
The starting point is always a comprehensive understanding of the target users—patients, healthcare providers, or internal use —and their unique challenges. From there, we map out a digital solution tailored to these needs, ensuring it aligns with industry requirements and exceeds user expectations.
Your pharmaceutical app development strategy must also consider integrating digital tools capable of syncing with other medical devices and platforms into existing healthcare ecosystems. This integration is essential for a seamless user journey and for fostering trust in the digital tool's reliability.
Incorporating analytics into the strategy allows for ongoing improvements based on user feedback and behavior, ensuring the app remains relevant and valuable. This blend of user-centric design, compliance, and continuous evolution forms the foundation of a successful pharma app development strategy.
When seeking inspiration for pharma apps, it's worth looking at platforms that have significantly impacted healthcare management.
Headspace is a prime example of an app with a strategy we admire. Starting as a mindfulness app, it expanded into the regulated health space, offering exercises to combat stress, anxiety, and sleep issues.
Headspace's journey from a consumer app to a health companion showcases the importance of a strong foundation before entering the more regulated realms of health. Their subscription model, complete with a free trial, demonstrates an effective retention strategy.
My Sugar, tailored for diabetes management, presents an exemplary case of user-centric design. It offers a personalized dashboard for managing diabetes-related health aspects, integrating smoothly with devices and platforms like Apple Health, Google Fit, and Accu-Chek devices. This pharma app development focuses on the user experience and ensures secure data handling.
The story of Babylon serves as both inspiration and a cautionary account. The app's AI symptom-checking chatbot aimed to democratize healthcare, offering quick assessments and virtual doctor consultations.
However, despite its noble aspirations, Babylon faced challenges. Its business model exerted financial pressure on the UK’s National Healthcare System (NHS), and there were concerns over the AI chatbot's diagnostic accuracy. Additionally, the tendency to attract younger, healthier patients raised issues around patient selection bias.
When we talk about the legal framework governing healthcare and pharmaceutical apps, it's like navigating a complex maze with various rules and regulations that differ across regions. In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the cornerstone for patient data protection. HIPAA compliance ensures that sensitive patient health information is safeguarded, requiring encryption, secure access controls, and regular audits.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also laid down specific guidelines that are essential to follow for protecting consumer data and ensuring privacy. The FTC expects apps to be transparent about the data they collect and how it's used, and it enforces penalties for deceptive practices.
For apps directed at children, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) dictates stringent rules about collecting information from minors under 13. It's crucial to understand these regulations and integrate them into your app's design if your target audience includes children.
You also can’t forget that each state in the US may have its own set of health privacy statutes. Plus, if your app is used internationally, you'll need to comply with another set of regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
When developing an app, keeping a few best practices in mind can help you craft a more efficient product with a better user experience. First, put yourself in your user's shoes. What kind of information or functionalities would you like to see if you were a patient or employee?
Plan an app that has real utility and perform market research to find out what your users really want. The types of apps for pharma that have typically performed well include patient education, medical reference, and management of chronic conditions.
Additionally, ensure you're following legal requirements and offering the utmost security surrounding patients' information; if users don't trust their information will be confidential, they'll be quick to head elsewhere.
Download Mobiquity's digital healthcare features radar
Your app should evolve as the needs of the user do, but it's also important to keep up with the latest digital trends. When you're developing your app, consider the overall journey.
Should users expect to use your app daily, or will it only be needed for a short period of time? Try to remove any barriers to use and optimize the UX continually. Continuously gather user feedback through surveys, focus groups, and usability testing to identify pain points and opportunities for enhancement so you can refine the user experience.
With frequent updates to iOS and Android platforms, it's essential to stay ahead of the curve regarding changes that could affect your app's functionality. Proactively monitor upcoming releases and assess their potential impact on privacy and security features. Make sure to allocate resources for prompt updates to ensure compatibility and compliance with the latest operating system versions.
As technology becomes more and more ingrained in everything we do, it's virtually impossible to imagine a world without apps. If you're developing a pharmaceutical app, consider reaching out to Mobiquity for guidance.
Our team can help you find ways to put the emphasis on the patient, deepen your digital strategy, and improve the patient or HCP experience. Reach out to our team today to discover how we can help you.
As an expert in digital healthcare and organizational excellence, Teun Schutte is the Managing Consultant of Digital Strategy Healthcare, Mobiquity. Teun has an established career in healthcare, with a specialism in respiratory health. Beginning his career at GlaxoSmithKline, he spent over 13 years at the organization and worked across 6 different roles. Teun joined the company as a Clinical Research Manager and rose through the ranks to become the Head of Sales and Marketing for Respiratory. Teun has worked on developing digital health solutions, such as the deployment of the MyAsthma application, a COPD coach, and he was integral to the transformation of GSK towards empowerment and digitalization. In 2015 Teun completed Nyenrode Business University in Amsterdam in Healthcare Innovation and Management which further strengthened his expertise in health innovation. Teun joined Mobiquity in 2016 to strengthen the team with his healthcare strategy and digital experience. He has worked with the Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology to redefine the patient pathway from the perspective of the family. He created a digital assistant for pain management and worked in many more disease areas to design and validate digital opportunities, always with delivering value to all users value in mind. In his free time, Teun undertakes voluntary work for the Personalised Healthcare Catalyst Alliance where he has created multi-stakeholder journeys and projects for rheumatoid arthritis and depression, such as “HelpYourFriendsHelp” - a project which activates the social network for people with mental challenges. He is also a volunteer for “Het Longfonds” – a Dutch non-profit which tackles chronic lung diseases. Teun is an authority on using digital technologies to create human-centric healthcare solutions, multi-stakeholder design, respiratory healthcare solutions, realigning the patient pathway from various stakeholder perspectives, and reimagining financial well-being as part of every healthcare strategy.
Give us your information below to start the conversation.
